When Twobreakfasts was just Onebreakfast. The otherdude is Haya de la Torre (for those who know their history)
Gustavo Gorriti is a multiaward-winning journalist in Peru (look up his resumé if you're interested but suffice to say he's one of the most respected around). He came out with a phrase just before the run-off for 2006 presidential election between Twobreakfasts and Ollanta Humala (that Twobreakfasts won, of course). He wasn't proactively calling for people to vote for Alan (better) over Humala (worse) but pointing out Alan was "the least bad" of the two choices. Anyway, this is what he said.
My view that the guy is an awful president at the head of an even worse administration hasn't changed. For sure his TV address last night was a political calculation, too. But I do salute him for having enough integrity to admit he screwed up live on TV. He did the right thing. It took weeks (nay months) and the blood of 23 police officers and a still-unknown numbers of protestor deaths, but he did do the right thing.
However the loudest cheer is left for the people that stood up to him. All the pressure levied on the guy in the last few days, both from inside and outside Peru, has brought this change from Twobreakfasts be in no doubt. When APRA cranked up the bullyboy tactics via their hideous and overtly racist TV propaganda, right-thinking people pushed right back at him. García would not have changed his tune last night if it weren't for the weight of public opinion. We will now get the annulment of the anti-Amazon, pro-oil company laws that he tried to push through as executive decrees. We will get the resignation of a woefully disappointing Prime Minister in Yehude Simon. And we might even get a Peruvian president that has learned a significant lesson and won't try to ride roughshod over his people again...though looking at track records that may be way too much to ask.
The thing that's on my mind now is "who'll be the next PM?". PPK is probably favourite right now, but upgrades from within the cabinet (Mercedes Araoz, José Chang) are possible too. Another one that came to mind is getting Lourdes Flores, leader of UN, to come in and put an official seal on the right-wing nature of Twobreakfasts version 20.09. We shall wait and we shall see.
"Alan García could not be a dictator even if he wanted; Ollanta Humala could not be a democrat even if he tried."That phrase leaped from the recesses of memory last night when at 10pm Twobreakfasts addressed the nation from the presidential palace on TV. No need to do the whole script here, as the essence of the address was García admitting he'd made serious errors in the process that led up to the Bagua massacre and then the errors continued during and afterwards (his exact phrase was "a succession of errors and exaggerations"). He couldn't let the opportunity pass without laying some of the blame on "agitators and politicos" but hey...time to cut the guy some slack.
My view that the guy is an awful president at the head of an even worse administration hasn't changed. For sure his TV address last night was a political calculation, too. But I do salute him for having enough integrity to admit he screwed up live on TV. He did the right thing. It took weeks (nay months) and the blood of 23 police officers and a still-unknown numbers of protestor deaths, but he did do the right thing.
However the loudest cheer is left for the people that stood up to him. All the pressure levied on the guy in the last few days, both from inside and outside Peru, has brought this change from Twobreakfasts be in no doubt. When APRA cranked up the bullyboy tactics via their hideous and overtly racist TV propaganda, right-thinking people pushed right back at him. García would not have changed his tune last night if it weren't for the weight of public opinion. We will now get the annulment of the anti-Amazon, pro-oil company laws that he tried to push through as executive decrees. We will get the resignation of a woefully disappointing Prime Minister in Yehude Simon. And we might even get a Peruvian president that has learned a significant lesson and won't try to ride roughshod over his people again...though looking at track records that may be way too much to ask.
The thing that's on my mind now is "who'll be the next PM?". PPK is probably favourite right now, but upgrades from within the cabinet (Mercedes Araoz, José Chang) are possible too. Another one that came to mind is getting Lourdes Flores, leader of UN, to come in and put an official seal on the right-wing nature of Twobreakfasts version 20.09. We shall wait and we shall see.